islam today intends to address the concerns and aspirations of a vibrant Muslim community by providing readers with inspiration, information, a sense of community and solutions through its unique and specialised contents. It also sets out to help Muslims and non-Muslims better understand and appreciate the nature of a dynamic faith.

ISSN2051-2503

July/ 2014Issue 21, Vol. 2 Special Ramadhan Edition

Editorial team

Contact us

Contributors

Managing Director

Information

Mohammad Saeed Bahmanpour

info@islam-today.net

Alexander Khaleeli

Julia Khadija Lafene

Health Editor

Follow us on Facebook

Laleh Lohrasbi

www.facebook.com/islamtodaymag

Batool Haydar

Managing Editor

Article Submissions

Anousheh Mireskandari

submit@islam-today.net

Sabnum Dharamsi

Layout and Design Raha Design Group

Chief Editor

Letters to the Editor

Amir De Martino

letters@islam-today.net

Reza Murshid

Art Editor Moriam Grillo

Hannah Smith

Copy Editor

www.islam-today.net

Kawther Rahmani

Ali Jawad

Design and Production Nasser Hasani/Saeeid Saffar Nejad

Disclaimer: Where opinion is expressed it is that of the author and does not necessarily coincide with the editorial views of the publisher or islam today. All information in this magazine is verified to the best of the authors’ and the publisher’s ability. However, islam today shall not be liable or responsible for loss or damage arising from any users’ reliance on information obtained from the magazine.

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C o n t e n t s

Tender is the Night; Living between worlds

In the Spotlight

The Trojan Horse plot and future of Islamic Education

Masterpiece

Graffiti Art

Is the Muslim world suffering from a crisis of authority?

Graphic Design

Mixed Media

Broadening our reach

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Nasser Mansour

Hannah Smith analyses the situation after the Trojan Horse Ofsted reports arguing that the repercussions of this incident pose a huge challenge to the Muslim community, its culture and its survival in Britain

The letter Kaf, ink on paper by Ali Omar Ermes

El Seed

The rise of self-proclaimed spokesmen of Islam has created a confusing and dangerous situation in the Islamic world. Ali Jawad discusses the reasons for such predicament

‘Diluvium I’ by Rostarr

Sundus Abdul-Hadi

Heritage12ARTS

Earthenware bowl with Kufic inscription

Sabnum Dharamsi discusses the symbolism of day and night, life and death and the blurring of the boundaries between the two in light of the month of Ramadhan

Place to Be

Addendum

The street

The Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of the Arts

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From the Editor

Life & Community

C o n t e n t s

The month of Ramadhan; A time to grow

Understanding virtue and vice

MERS

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Feature

Faith

Health

Batool Haydar talks about the realisations that Ramadhan brings - that we are much stronger than we think and we all have the ability to change

Recognising our shortcomings is an important step towards self-development. Julia Khadija Lafene explains how it is done

The appearance of a new dangerous disease in Saudi Arabia means that pilgrims must take extra precautions explains Laleh Lohrasbi

Glossary of Islamic Symbols

The letter(s) after the name of the Prophet Muhammad(s) stands for the Arabic phrase sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam, meaning: ‘May God bless him [Muhammad] and grant him peace’.The letter (a) stands for the Arabic phrase ‘alayhis-salaam, ‘alayhas-salaam (feminine) and ‘alayhimus-salaam (plural) meaning respectively: (God’s) Peace be with him/ her/ or them.

The month of Ramadhan and the essence of worship

18Cover

In a society driven by a philosophy of maximisation and acquisition there is a strong risk that our religious life will become affected by this very philosophy, argues Alexander Khaleeli

Boko Haram and the spectre of foreign intervention

16Opinion

Reza Murshid assesses the impact of yet another reckless group intent on tarnishing the name of Islam while presenting itself as Islamic

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F r o m t h eE d i t o r

Starting from the holy month of Ramadhan, islam today comes out in a slightly changed format. As a service

to the larger community of Muslims around the world, we have decided to broaden our reach to as many people as possible by producing a free-subscription digital magazine. We will continue to work with the same rigour and professionalism as we have for the last twenty issues in order to provide an informative and educational magazine for our readership.As per our initial intention, islam today will continue to address the concerns and aspirations of the Muslim community by providing readers with exclusive and focused contents, with the added bonus of the possibility of free distribution - allowing our readers to pass the magazine on to their family and friends. Therefore, from this time forward, islam today will be a bi-monthly, digital magazine. Contents can be accessed directly through our website. The July/August issue of islam today coincides with the Islamic month of Ramadhan, therefore it seems appropriate to give a larger proportion of pages to articles related to one of the pillars of the Islamic faith.In the cover story for this issue, Alexander Khaleeli discusses the negative effect that today’s lifestyle can have on our spiritual and religious practices with specific reference to Islamic fasting. The powerful forces of secularism, corporate globalisation, and

consumerism are a constant threat to the foundation of our belief system. Khaleeli expresses concern on how a culture of maximisation dictated by material interest is slowly creeping in, effecting the way we understand our devotional acts of worship and influenced by the dichotomy of quantity over quality. It is evident that as a new generation of Muslims are born and raised in the West we need to constantly re-evaluate our practices and ensure that we don’t look at our faith as a mere cultural expression of what we are, nor do we appraise our faith in terms of how rich and powerful we might have become as a community. Practices of abstaining from food, drink, etc., in the holy month of Ramadhan entails multiple layers of symbolism which require attentive reflection and introspection to be fully comprehended. Our individual attitude and how we relate to them has bearing on our acts of devotion - thus we can feel things either deeply or superficially. The piling up of religious practices devoid of true understanding can lead to religious exhaustion. Quality and constancy should be the focus of religious practices and not sheer quantity. As Prophet Muhammad(s) reminds us: ‘The most beloved deed to God is the most regular and constant, even though it is little’.Quality stands for the essence of thing while quantity signifies its material aspect. It is therefore in the realm of quality that we should concentrate especially when dealing

with matters related to worship. As Imam Ali(a) has said: ‘One hour of reflective thinking is higher (in the eyes of God) than one year of worship’. This relationship with quality should also be encouraged in other aspect of our lives. Often enthused by our eagerness, we tend to get involved in all sorts of projects or initiatives in an effort to maximise our engagement. Such obvious dispensation of energies would eventually result in the decrease of the quality of what we do. In the life and community section Ali Jawad discusses in his clear and thought-provoking style, the crisis of leadership in the Islamic world at a time when the historical centres of Islamic learning have been marginalised, with many group and individuals emerging from nowhere claiming to be the ‘true representatives’ of the Faith. In such a scenario it is important to ensure that groups and individuals who provide Islamic guidance are associated or approved by reputable centres of Islamic learning.As for the team of islam today, with the above in mind and with the awareness of the possibilities of gaining God’s rewards, especially during the month of Ramadhan, we shall move forward in this new phase of the publication with the hope of fulfilling a part of our responsibility towards our readers and our Faith. We shall value your continued readership and invite you to keep sending in your comments and feedback..Ramadhan Mubarak

Broadening our reach

Amir De Martino

Chief Editor

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From thecounsellor ’s

chair

In this month, the blessed month of Ramadhan, I wanted to share something more personal

with you. I wanted to share with you thoughts about the tenderness of the night in month of Ramadhan and its significance for healing and well-being. As a counsellor, I help people with the problems that we all experience, but I am also concerned with being proactive in relation to well-being,

and especially what that means at a deeper level. The holy month of Ramadhan is an intensely powerful month and this article is an invitation to embrace all that it has to offer.

Of course, there are the more obvious bits of advice. Many articles have been written by Muslim doctors and health professionals who have seen fasting as a motivator to better physical health and an opportunity to give up smoking and eat more healthily.

But what I mean is a kind of inner health – a health not only of the mind, but a deeper health, one which exists within our hearts.

We have to go beyond thinking of Ramadhan as an opportunity to temper the indulgences of the body, but rather a time to understand a little bit about how it removes the cobwebs from our

minds and purifies our hearts.

Tender is the Night;Living between Worlds

The Holy Month of Ramadhan provides us with the opportunity to utilise the dark hours of the day for worship. Sabnum Dharamsi discusses ‘the juxtaposition of day and night, life and death and the blurring of boundaries between the two’

“Why get tied to a hag like this world, and for such a price? And for a ration of three loaves, why think of the sword and the knife?At night the Beloved always returns, take no opium tonight,Close your mouth to food and know another taste.”

(Rumi, The Ruins of the Heart, translated by Edmund ‘Kabir’ Helminski)

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We have to go beyond thinking of Ramadhan as an opportunity to temper the indulgences of the body, but rather a time to understand a little bit about how it removes the cobwebs from our minds and purifies our hearts. So, I specifically want to discuss the nights of month of Ramadhan. Many scholars have written about the spiritual meaning and significance of these blessed nights, but in this article I would like to focus on the tenderness of those nights. People often say that the most difficult thing in Ramadhan is not refraining from eating, but the disturbance to their sleep patterns - particularly in more northern climes when Ramadhan falls in summer and the nights are short and the fasting days long. We are more often awake at night, and if we sleep, it is often only to wake before fajr. So what is good about this? It means our attachment to everyday reality is d is turbed . The word Qalb, meaning heart in Arabic, comes from the root qalaba, to turn. The healthy heart is one which is not fixated or held captive by the illusory pleasures and anxieties that are the nature of this world. Often we become creatures of habit, following routines that stultify us and lead us to live shallow or robotic existences. In this verse, it’s as if God is telling us that there are people who are alive but only exist:

‘…. they have hearts with which they do not understand, they have eyes with which they do not see, they have ears with which they do not hear’. (7:179)

Of course, we are human too, and the mercy of Islam is that it recognises that most of us struggle to keep vigil everyday. Lots of us love sleep, and for good reason. We know scientifically, how important sleep is to our well-being. Even though so little about sleep is

understood, we know that not to have sufficient sleep affects our brain function, our ability to learn and interact with others, and it can also upset the balance of many hormones, including insulin. Indeed, for God says:

‘Splitter of the dawn, He has made the night for rest, and the sun and the moon for calculation. That is the ordaining of the All-Mighty, the All-Knowing’. (6:96)

But I believe it is also important to release ourselves from the veils of conditioning, and when we do, we see that truth is there. The Qur’an says, ‘God…created the heavens and the earth in Truth’ (15:85).

This is what Rumi is calling us to in the poem above, to give up, as he says, the ‘opium of sleep’. When we don’t sleep, perhaps we

can bear witness to that intangible tender sacredness that falls over and through us like a protective sheath. It is as though our selves, the personas and roles we inhabit most of the time become dislocated.In the night maybe we begin to taste how it doesn’t matter whether we are beautiful or ugly, rich or poor. We perhaps temporarily loosen our identification with our roles of brother, sister, Imam or sweeper. In doing so we create a space for worship in our otherwise preoccupied hearts. We discover His Names; His Vastness – the unseen becomes apparent, almost like even our bodies feel like a temporary envelope; we are living between worlds, timelessly. And I believe something in us, something in the way we are designed, needs to experience this feeling of beyondness. It’s a long poem and I don’t have

the space to quote it all, but here are a few excerpts from another poem by Mawlana Rumi, who explains further: “Earth is not the final rest Of a bird born of that sea.No we are pearls of that oceanAnd if it weren’t so why wouldWave upon wave arrive? .....Beyond this world is a worldThat has no boundaries”

(Rumi)

In month of Ramadhan, we can, I believe, by His Grace, feel more easily the boundlessness that is the truth beyond our everyday illusions. It reminds me in a way of that shift of perspective that we experience when someone close to us dies; we are reminded of what really matters.It sounds paradoxical, but being conscious of night, with its closing of the day and its activity, reminds us of death. It can be a lonely time

for many, particularly that point just before the first light, when most suicides occur. The juxtaposition of day and night, life and death and the blurring of the boundaries between the two, enable us to acknowledge our frailty and submit to our

intangibility, and maybe glimpse the Hand behind all things. It’s not uncommon, though frightening, to experience dark times in ones life. And those dark times are there with purpose, to encourage us to face this reality, that life and its pleasures are temporary. Facing the night, is in a way to face death, and when and if we can do so, life is all the more sweet. In month of Ramadhan, protected by His grace, especially on the Nights of Qadr, when there is peace till the breaking of the dawn, I have witnessed transformations occur. Truly, Tender is the Night..

The juxtaposition of day and night, life and death and the blurring of the boundaries between the two, enable us to acknowledge our frailty and submit to our intangibility, and maybe glimpse

the Hand behind all things.

Sabnum Dharamsi is a therapist and co-founder of Islamic Counselling Training.

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The Trojan Horse plot and future of Islamic Education T

he threat of creeping Islamification and an insidious takeover of British secular state

schools has dominated newspaper headlines over the past year culminating in the frenzied ‘Trojan Horse plot’ scandal in Birmingham in the past month. The ‘Trojan Horse plot’ has exploded in recent

months against a backdrop of unendingly vicious Islamophobia in the press that highlights every weakness and mistake of the Muslim community. The school row has exposed Muslim governors and staff guilty of imposing Islamic culture and belief upon secular school staff and pupils in breach of state legislation. Common Muslim

beliefs and cultural practices have been labelled as ‘extremist’ and opposed to British values, calling into question the future of Muslim governance, the education of Muslims and all forms of Islamic education.The prelude to the Birmingham ‘Trojan Horse plot’ began in September 2013 when the Al-

Madinah Free School was investigated following complaints of nepotism within the governing body and changes to school policies. Although originally formed as a faith-based Islamic school, conservative Muslim practices had eventually been adopted which had

not originally been agreed to by the Department of Education, which oversees all state-funded Free schools. Al-Madinah was eventually closed following a damning inspection that categorised the school as ‘dysfunctional’ and failing in every category. The headline-grabbing scandal of Al-Madinah School was an ominous forewarning

to the Muslim community about the government’s attitude toward certain Muslim beliefs and practises and their place in British schools.The Al-Madinah scandal has been followed in recent months by an unprecedented emergency inspection of 21 secular state schools in Birmingham. Ofsted, the official school inspection authority, was called in by the Department of Education following a hoax letter which accused some school governors of trying to impose Islamic culture upon secular schools and forcing out head teachers where they failed to comply. Although the number of incidents of malpractice revealed by the inspections was very small, the fear-mongering fuelled by the media that has surrounded the ‘Trojan Horse plot’, or ‘Islamic takeover plot’, has created irrevocable mistrust of Muslim governors and leadership and led to a cataclysmic shift in what is considered extremist belief that could forever impact upon how Muslim beliefs are perceived and tolerated in wider society.Of the 21 schools inspected only 5 were found to have inappropriately adopted Muslim beliefs and habits

Common Muslim beliefs and cultural practices have been labelled as ‘extremist’ and opposed to British values, calling into question the future of Muslim governance, the education of Muslims and all forms of Islamic education.

The issue of how government-

founded Islamic Schools are run has been the focus of the UK

government attention. Hannah Smith explains how this will affect the Muslim

community, its culture and its survival in Britain

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into a secular school ethos. One school, Oldknow Primary School, was probably the worst perpetrator having used school funds to pay for a trip to Saudi Arabia in which only Muslim pupils could attend, and in some classes and years standard aspects of the curriculum such as music and art were omitted to suit some Muslims’ interpretation of Islam, while Islamic interpretations of Christmas and evolution were imposed upon pupils. Such Islamic cultural practices and beliefs, for which schools such as Oldknow Primary School and Park View Academy have failed their inspections and are being taken over, are widespread in the Muslim community, including amongst Shi’a. Instead of being accused of discrimination or altering the ethos of a secular school, these schools failed because they apparently eschewed ‘extremist’ views and are failing to prepare their students for life in modern Britain.Prior to this ‘Trojan Horse plot’ furore, the label extremism had been preserved for violent beliefs associated with Muslim terrorists. Extremism has now been redefined as an opposition to ‘British values’ and the notoriously fuzzy notion of British values has been defined by the Department of Education as: ‘democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs’, although there is an implicit suggestion that in light of the ‘Trojan Horse plot’ some faith-based beliefs are intolerable. While it is clear that some actions of Birmingham schools, such as preventing Muslim students from attending a local Christian school, did not go far enough to respect and tolerate the beliefs of others, unfortunately in labelling such practices as extremist many commentators have ignorantly extrapolated the association of conservative Muslim beliefs and extremism to dangerous lengths; Hazel Blears, former Communities Minister, in support of the Education Secretary, blurted out on Radio 5 Live, that a person going to the mosque five-times-a-day is a sign of extremism! If this is a sign of extremism, and in opposition to British values, then what space

is there for religious belief and practice in modern Britain?The inevitable outcome of the Birmingham schools will be the tighter regulation of Muslim culture within schools and greater checks upon Muslim staff and governors. Just days after the final Birmingham Ofsted reports were unveiled, mainstream newspapers reported that 58% of voters now believe faith schools, which can give priority to applications from pupils of their faith and are free to teach only about their own religion, should not be funded by the state or should be abolished. I believe this is a positive step because if we are to aspire to a great British society founded on real British values of equality and justice, then our state-funded schools should promote no religion over another and instead teach about the diversity of faith and belief, allowing children to make their own religious choices. This should include scrapping the requirement for acts of religious worship to be wholly or mostly conducted according to broadly Christian beliefs. The biggest blow to the Muslim community of this whole saga, however, will be the inevitable crackdown upon Muslim faith schools and madrasahs. Since the schools in Birmingham were criticised and put in special measures for their failure to deliver a ‘broad and balanced curriculum’, a criterion which applies to both state-maintained and independent schools, it is likely that many independent Islamic schools will also be threatened with closure if they impose cultural habits or teach a narrow curriculum which omits subjects such as music, art and drama, which many educational policy-makers and politicians argue inadequately prepare young people for life in modern Britain. The Association of Muslim Schools UK, which holds statutory responsibilities in relation to state Muslim faith schools and provides guidance to another 143 independent Muslim schools, has already been

asked by the government what it is doing to protect children from extremism. Michael Gove, Secretary for Education, has said that if the association could not provide ‘robust’ assurances, ‘appropriate steps’ could be taken. Furthermore, the Department of Education will consider how Ofsted can better insist on all schools teaching a

balanced curriculum.Sadly, the Muslim community and its institutions that uphold such conservative beliefs have failed to respond to this challenge. Without any credible arguments and serious public dialogue, it is likely that the government will continue to take it upon itself to regulate the Muslim community including dictating its own preferred version of Islamic beliefs. This is already evidenced through the recent announcement by the Department of Education of an optional code of conduct for privately-run madrasahs that will require them to carry out criminal checks on all staff, inspections for corporal punishment and teaching of a government-sanctioned curriculum. There are also initiatives such as the ‘Curriculum for Cohesion’ in the pipeline which will teach pupils in Muslim-majority areas about the history of Muslims in Britain. It is surely very embarrassing for the Muslim community - and heartbreaking - that it is both incapable of regulating itself and is losing control of its own future..

...the fear-mongering fuelled by the media that has surrounded the ‘Trojan Horse plot’, or ‘Islamic takeover plot’, has created irrevocable mistrust of Muslim governors and leadership and led to a cataclysmic shift in what is considered extremist belief.

Hannah Smith has an undergraduate degree in Geophysics from Imperial College London and the University of Oxford, and a Masters degree in Geology from the University of Michigan.

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For the average observer, the discourse on Islam has become painstaking perplexing in recent years. In the media, the faith has become inseparably

associated with an endless series of barbaric acts and horrific crimes. Each time an event shocks the human moral conscience, one forebodes the hand of some militant Muslim outfit. The recent kidnapping of more than 200 school children from the Nigerian town of Chibok fits into this narrative.In the aftermath of the kidnapping, a wide-range of Muslim organisations and public figures have stood up to categorically condemn the actions of Boko Haram. Their leader, Abubakar Shekau, released a lengthy video peppered with ‘Islamic’ symbolism in which he glorified the kidnapping. For those for whom the media constitutes the principal source of information about Islam, this incident is merely the latest in an endless series of horrific crimes associated with the faith. Both those who condone and condemn such crimes substantiate their positions by resorting to Islam as their source of inspiration. In the face of such a serious dichotomy, how is the average Muslim, let alone the non-Muslim, able to distinguish between the two versions of faith? For Muslims who regard their faith as the cornerstone of their moral, social and ideological identity, the very notion that their faith would offer two contradictory answers to the same question is utterly illogical. Many Muslims have chosen the convenient position that militant groups are simply utilising faith as a façade for deeply political agendas. It has corrupted their religious outlook and emptied it of its profound essence, leaving in its wake an ugly outward form. Although this is undoubtedly true, it fails to properly remedy the profundity of the problem - at least from the point of view of the outside observer. Ultimately, the question boils down to: ‘who speaks for Islam?’ Or rather, who possesses the right to speak for Islam? In the Islamic context, the question concerning authority is neither novel nor has it arisen by the irresistible juggernaut of modernity. Since its early beginnings, the subject has been intensely debated. By the second century after hijrah (Islamic era) the Muslim community already consisted of tens, if not hundreds, of different schools of thought in jurisprudence, theology and philosophy. Despite the multiplicity of schools, by the second century after hijrah there existed defined structures of authority for each respective school of thought. Generally, students in the various sciences of Islam, especially jurisprudence, affiliated themselves to a particular school at whose head was their scholarly master or guide. Students who reached a certain level of qualification would then be accredited by their mentor, and thereby receive an ijazah (license) from their mentor as an expert in jurisprudence.In modern times, the set of structures that held together and promoted this vibrant atmosphere has all but dissipated. It is important to note that whilst the reality of the past was not as idyllic as some would have us

With the disappearance of authoritative centres of learning in the Islamic world, myriads of groups and individuals have become self-proclaimed spokesmen of Islam. Ali Jawad explains where the problem for this situation lies

Is the Muslim world suffering from a crisis of authority?

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believe – there were fringe groups such as the Khawarij, individual scholars and even entire schools of thought that were co-opted to do the bidding of the political powers of the time. Nevertheless, there existed reasonable structures of authority. The discussion of authority in Islam is thus a well-beaten path. According to the UCLA-based law Professor Khaled Abou El-Fadl, ‘Muslims have suffered a crisis of authority that has deteriorated to the point of full-fledged chaos’ in the modern age. Moreover, the ‘disintegration of the traditional institutions of Islamic learning and authority meant a descent into a condition of virtual anarchy in regard to the mechanisms of defining Islamic authenticity’.As a consequence, the threshold of scholarship was diminished to the point of non-existence. The situation has devolved into the equivalent of a high school science student being qualified to perform brain surgery. The Internet age has opened the doors for all and sundry to declare themselves scholars and issue religious verdicts in the name of Islam. Today, all one needs to do is launch a website or post a video, assemble a fanbase, quote a bit of scripture to instantly transform into an overnight authority figure capable of speaking about any injunction or Islamic teaching. A couple of important caveats are in order at this point. Firstly, whilst scholars such as Abou El-Fadl principally focus on the literalist, takfiri current of thought as the principal provocateurs and beneficiaries of this disturbing erosion of authority, they are not the only such actor. Individuals and groups that are often labelled moderates or progressive reformists who take it upon themselves to issue verdicts on religious

injunctions often show utter disdain for traditional institutions, and all-too-easily issue their opinions as statements of fact.Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, it is vital to emphasise the individual responsibility that rests on each of our shoulders from the perspective of faith. At the core of its worldview, Islam elevates the role of the intellect. Whilst the individual may not be qualified to derive Islamic rulings, one still has

an obligation to ensure that the source one defers to is properly qualified to fulfil that function, and where necessary, provide the burden of proof to establish their claim on a given stance. There are many like Abou El-Fadl who depict the current dynamics in cosmic terms, in which so-

called puritans are pitched against moderates. Whilst there is some truth to this over-simplified canvas, much of its associated narrative should be viewed as sensationalist drama. While the traditional institutions of Islamic learning may have been woefully impaired in many quarters of the Muslim world, the broad majority of Muslims keenly appreciate the importance and necessity of rightful authority. The significant vocal strength

of the absolutist, takfiri current should rightly be viewed as an historic anomaly and not the norm. Although the confluence of several factors including Western colonialism, the decline of traditional institutions of Islamic learning, and the deceptive utilisation of the sacred symbolism of Makkah and Madinah by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, paints an ominous picture, this trend is ultimately fleeting in the grand scheme of history. Imam

Ali(a) summarised the predicament when the community was plagued with a similar challenge during his time. His lasting sermon preserved in the Nahjul Balagha (sermon 18), underlines the pre-eminent place of the Holy Qur'an. Confronted by contradictory positions

put forward by claimants of faith, there is no solution but to return to the Holy Qur’an with its endless marvels and its subtlest intricacies in search for lasting solutions.In dealing with the crisis of authority in the Muslim world, there are no immediate solutions. There is no escaping that much of the woes

that we face as an ummah are attributable to this phenomenon, which has been further amplified by the power-games within a region of great global interest. At the same time, it is clear that there rests an important duty on the shoulders of individual Muslims in regards to

how they experience and practice their faith. At another level, we must emphasise the importance of the traditional institutions of higher Islamic learning in an age in which the very word ‘traditional’ is deemed pejorative. Lastly, during such dark times it is important to resort to the firmest ‘handholds of truth’..

In the Islamic context, the question concerning authority is neither novel nor has it arisen by the irresistible juggernaut of modernity. Since its early beginnings, the subject has been intensely debated.

Ali Jawad is a human rights activist and political analyst with a keen interest in international diplomacy.

Today, all one needs to do is launch a website or post a video, assemble a fanbase, quote a bit of scripture to instantly transform into an overnight authority figure capable of speaking about any injunction or

Islamic teaching.

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ARTSArt Editor Moriam Grillo

Her i tageEarthenware bowl with Kufic inscriptionFrom Nishapur, Western Iran, 11th century CE. Inscription reads: ‘He who speaks, his speech is silver, but silence is a ruby’This bowl from Nishapur creates a simple contrast between the black Arabic script and white glazed ceramic. This elegant decorative arrangement of the Kufic script, with its tall fine letters has a clear and sweet message. A message that presents a different form of nourishment than expected.

In the spot l ight Nasser Mansour‘The first thing God created was the Pen. He created the tablet and asked the Pen to “Write”. And the Pen replied “What shall I write”? He said “Write My Decree” of My Creation till the Day of Resurrection. Then the Pen traced that which has been ordained’. Tradition from the Prophet Muhammad(S)

Nasser Mansour is a celebrated artist with a doctorate in the Arts and major in Arabic calligraphy. As well as being Professor of the art of Arabic calligraphy at al-Balqa University, Mansour is revered for having created one of the most iconic pieces of Islamic Art from the 21st century. His work entitled ‘Kun’ is composed of ink and gold leaf on paper.Whilst Western art is essentially iconic and motivated by image and form, Islamic art is carried for the most part, by geometry, pattern and literary text. Each element of this sacred art is hinged on precise, often mathematical formulaic outcomes. Mansour’s work is no different. His execution of the craft reinforces a deep understanding of the rules of calligraphy, something which even in his unique artistic expression he chooses not to defer from.The word ‘Kun’, translated as ‘Be’, appears eight times in the Qur’an in seven different chapters. The term relates to the beginning of creation and God’s instruction, ‘kun fa-yakun’ - ‘be and it is’.Through the use of a simple word, Mansour fuels the imagination, with a reminder of the power of God, in the hearts of those that know. For those unlettered individuals, for whom the calligraphy is indecipherable, the beauty of his work is still successful in rousing something within the heart.

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‘Arabic is an ideal visual form to break the barriers of communication of people and languages. Not only in its literary expression, but also in its silent musical expression. [Through] the use of space, colour and the power of shifting places in their quiet and noisy effects’. - Ali Omar Ermes.Ali Omar Ermes is an artist and writer on social and cultural issues. Born in Libya in 1945 Ermes studied design at Portsmouth School of Art and Design, before going on to study briefly at the Central School of Art in London. Ermes’ work can be placed into one of three groups. The first, are those works which are made up of a single letter form. The next group is works which conveys a series of words or phrases. Then there is his more complex work which explores the aesthetic of letter-forms in a patterned and rhythmical way. This painting, from the first group, is of the letter Kaf and is accompanied by a poem of the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur (754-75 CE). Ermes uses this aesthetic often; the use of a solitary letter accompanied by a poem from antiquity, each informing the other. The poem is about the injustices of society. Ermes juxtaposes the fine and discreet lines of poetry with his own work which is written in a large and bold form. He describes poetry as the ‘medium between the visual movement of the image, and the universe to which it belongs’. The subtle presence of the poem adds to the fundamental quality of his solitary letter. While the letter itself serves to highlight the dynamism of the Arabic form. The versatility of the Arabic alphabet will remain a source of inspiration for artists from around the world. Whilst artist Ali Omar Ermes uses strong, expressive brush-strokes and colours to express his creativity, other artists, although applying the same discipline, use differing materials and ideologies in order to convey their own unique message. Here, Ermes uses the Maghribi script, a script synonymous with North Africa, and Libya, his homeland. Ermes paints his single letter-forms with a large brush, selecting letters which draw references from a variety of regions and calligraphic scripts. Yet, despite this, Ermes’ art does not yield to the laws and tenets of Arabic calligraphy. Though his letters are created from free-flowing brush strokes, they are also occupied by an air of innovation which is quite far from tradition, thus allowing it to stand alone, occupying its own definitive position and its own visual language which is more readily identifiable than any Arabic script might be. Ermes is chair of the Muslim Heritage Centre in London.

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Graph i c Des ign

Gra f f i t i A r t

‘Dilu

vium

I’ b

y R

osta

rr

El Seed‘I like graffiti because it brings art to everyone. I like the fact of democratising art’. - El SeedBecause of his merging of graffiti-style street art and calligraphy, French Tunisian artist, El Seed calls his art Calligrafitti.Born in La Chesnay, France in 1981, El Seed grew up speaking Arabic. His art is inspired by his Tunisian roots and in particular the injustices that were experienced in his homeland. It was the revolution in Tunisia in 2011 which acted as a catalyst for his career as an artist, forging an awakened man to arise from a childhood lived in an abject land and an adolescence which had rebelled against his heritage. El Seed’s work is beautiful and dynamic, incorporating traditional Islamic style with a contemporary approach which is not just seen through the influence of graffiti but also in the way he translates the movement and fluidity of the words and their meaning. El Seed is inspired by the Iraqi artist Sundus Abdul-Hadi and the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, two people that he feels have displayed immense courage and integrity in speaking out against injustice. Something that El Seed is himself inspired to do.

His work can be found on street walls in America, Canada, the Middle East and Europe.

‘I don’t see anything as making a mistake. I guess it’s just my personality to create in this way. Not feeling too concerned about making a mistake. I think that if you can feel a brush stroke or see a drip, that’s human’. - Rostarr Romon Kimin Yang, aka Rostarr, is a painter, calligrapher, and filmmaker living and working in Brooklyn, New York. Rostarr studied graphic design in 1989, one in a series of creative stepping stones which started with his love of drawing as a young child. Rostarr recalled his early inspiration came from comic books and animation. During his adolescence, Rostarr was heavily influenced by hip hop culture and grafitti, and its emphasis on freedom of expression. This interaction allowed him to begin to identify with himself as a creative being. His early work was based on improvisation with the use of the whole body. An art practice which incorporated large canvases placed on the floor, plastic overalls and copious amounts of paint. For these projects, Rostarr would move freely on the canvas creating swathes of colour. Something Rostarr says was influenced by the cultural scene of the time. His approach to art then was more akin to automotive art such as Dadaism and Surrealism. Expressions said to be derived from the subconscious without the necessity for theory or rules. His time as a graphic designer led him to focus on the power of imagery, which led him to develop his own visual style called ‘Graphysics’, a merger of graphic design and physics, strong visual imagery and energy, creating the geometric dynamism which is clearly apparent in his work. In the search for something that reflected an aspect of himself, Rostarr began to make his work more abstract in the hope of seeking a subtler meaning. His work that most inspires me are the pieces which are heavily influenced by calligraphy. Rostarr says that he was drawn to calligraphy by the beauty of the lines, adding that every stroke appeared like poetry, whether he understood the words or not. What interests me most about Rostarr is how he has taken a feeling, a mood or mindset and used that quality to inspire his work. His work is organic. The first few strokes dictate what the final piece will be and is a spontaneous process which he has said surprises him every time. Seeing how it will start, based on a feeling, and being confident enough to go where it leads him, Rostarr has learnt to be wholly open to the process. In reverence of the outcome, knowing it is truly beyond him, yet within him at the same time. ‘Art is so much bigger than you. I feel like it healed me in a lot of ways and and gave me any opportunity to see who I really am, like my mirror, allowing abstract thoughts and feelings to come out. It’s really personal’. - Rostarr

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Moriam Grillo is an international artist. She holds Bachelor degrees in Photography, Film and Ceramics. She is also a freelance broadcaster, photographer and writer.

Place to be

The street

Addendum

The Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of the Arts

Mixed m

edia Sundus A

bdul-Hadi

As risqué as it sounds, I thought a chance to enjoy the increasing warmer weather and bask in the sunshine - as well as getting a little fresh air - suited this month’s ‘place to be’.The work of street calligrapher Mohammad Ali, also known as Aerosol Arabic, can be found on streets in Casablanca and Amsterdam, as well as major cities within the UK. Take a look outside, you may be surprised to find calligraphy presented in another way.

‘The complexity of our postmodern lives has both limited and made limitless our capabilities to reference our past. But we rarely take time to heal and tell our own story’.Sundus Abdul-Hadi is a young Canadian artist of Iraqi heritage. Abdul-Hadi’s work is provocative and laden with symbols that are reminiscent of the remnants of conflict - a response to the Arab springs,and past and present conflicts in the Middle East. I found Abdul-Hadi’s work shockingly startling and uneasy to observe. But what is war? Abdul-Hadi has formulated a way to challenge the grotesqueness of discord by using its symbols to emphasise the horrors. Something that is easy for those living beyond the borders of violence to be oblivious of or strategically ignore. The skill of Abdul-Hadi is that she is able to convey a clear message of antipathy, one that is told in two striking dimensions. As a mixed media artist, Abdul-Hadi uses her paintings alongside photography and text to tell her stories, which are a desperate plea to end injustice and recognise the barbarity that is borne of aggression. Preoccupied by the Iraqi lore connected to her heritage, Abdul-Hadi paints the politics of contention in such a way that all areas of the Middle East are unified in the same portrait of struggle. Not ‘history’, but ‘her’ story. Through her artwork Abdul-Hadi hopes to empower the countless number of stories that would otherwise go unheard and are overpowered by the dictatorship of the mainstream. Abdul-Hadi references Sumerian mythology in her work in the hope of connecting fundamental themes of human existence - social, spiritual or other - in the belief that history repeats itself, leaving lessons to be learnt from those who have gone before us.

Everything you’ll see at the Summer Exhibition at The Royal Academy of the Arts, represents what is happening in the art world right now. New and recent art created by everyone from emerging artists to the biggest names in contemporary art and architecture, showcasing a wealth of artists from the Islamic world..

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O p i n i o n

Over the past months, the world has witnessed the callousness of the perpetrators of a heinous

crime in Nigeria - the abduction of over 200 schoolgirls as they slept in their dormitory at night. At the height of this crisis, the world was also a witness to a grotesque show of bravado. After agonising for weeks about the fate of these hapless girls, the world community was treated to a video clip of the leader of the abductors.‘I abducted your girls’, said Abubakar Shekau, the shadowy leader of Boko Haram, with a grin on his face, ‘and I will sell them in the market, by God. I will sell them off and marry them off’. Immediately after this taunt went viral, Islamophobic media outlets like Fox News and anti-Muslim bloggers went into overdrive, repeatedly juxtaposing adjectives such as ‘Islamist’ and ‘Muslim’ with the word ‘terrorist’.This despite repeated condemnations from different Muslim thinkers, authors, organisations, and even Muslim heads of state all over the globe. Numerous examples abound, but here are two of the most important:- Al-Azhar in Egypt, considered to be among the oldest and most credible Sunni institutions of higher learning in the world, said in a statement that

‘this action does not relate to the noble teachings of Islam in any way. Al-Azhar demands the release of these girls immediately.’- Iran’s vice-president for Women and Family Affairs issued a statement, condemning the action by Boko Haram as a bonanza for the Muslim bashers and said that ‘such acts will boost [the prevalence of] Islamophobia, and are set up to smear Islam’.All the statements made by rational, educated Muslims around the globe were completely ignored by journalists covering the incident, who seemed bent on bashing Islam and Muslims, in effect helping to give far more airtime and press coverage to the incoherent speech of a misguided, self-proclaimed radical Muslim than the majority of Muslims who condemned such actions.It is as if there is a secret pact between extremist cult-like fringe groups claiming to be Muslims and the hatemongers who would rather obliterate the whole Muslim population. Boko Haram unleashes its random acts of violence on unsuspecting victims, giving the gleeful right-wing press more reason to brand them ‘Islamists’, notwithstanding our firm and repeated condemnation of such acts.

Extremism, Root Cause of OppressionBoko Haram has emerged in northern Nigeria, in a region mostly populated by Muslims and largely ignored by the central government. Oil-rich Nigeria is now considered the wealthiest country in Africa. Its economy recently overtook South Africa as the largest on the continent after the West African nation’s gross domestic product surpassed that of Pretoria. The size of the economy expanded by more than three-quarters to an estimated 80 trillion naira ($488 billion) for 2013. Unfortunately, this immense wealth has not translated into better living conditions for the Muslims in the north. Boko Haram initially emerged not as an armed group, but as a social movement aiming at returning to pure Islam, supposedly as a way to empower the dispossessed Muslims in the north. But somewhere along the way they lost sight of pure Islam, whose Prophet is known to have advocated education for both men and women. The group, whose name means ‘deception’ or ‘Western education is sinful’, has engaged in senseless cruelty and wanton violence against civilians. Founded in 2002, Boko Haram’s first violent action came in 2009 when it launched an

Boko Haram and the spectre of foreign interventionBehind the facade of an Islamic identity, the Boko Haram militantsin northern Nigeria must be understood as another opportunist group intent to obtain favour from a Nigerian government says Reza Murshid

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uprising in the North, which was immediately and brutally suppressed by the Nigerian military. Some 700 people, including innocent bystanders, were killed as a result of the military crackdown. The military also turned over Boko Haram’s charismatic leader, Mohammed Yusuf, to the police. But hours later the police presented Yusuf’s lifeless body to reporters. The reporters who saw Yusuf’s bullet-ridden body were incredulous as they heard the police claim that he was killed in the shootout after he had tried to flee. (It was actually after his death that the more radical members gained the upper hand in the group because they always pointed to the brutal way in which their leader was murdered.)

A Scenario All-Too FamiliarMost Muslims around the globe have been watching the events in northern Nigeria with consternation. While being totally against the actions of Boko Haram, they are worried about the repetition of the Afghan scenario by Western powers, i.e., the use of the defence of women’s rights as a pretext to unleashing military aggression against Nigeria.The First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, followed in the footsteps of her predecessor Laura Bush when she took over President Obama’s weekly radio address to condemn the actions of Boko Haram and express concern for the abducted girls.Only a decade ago, the United States and Britain instigated a war against Afghanistan ostensibly because the Taliban refused to turn over Osama Bin Laden. But in the run-up to that war, one more reason was added to invade Afghanistan: to improve the lives of Afghan women. Laura Bush reeled off the indignities that Afghan women had suffered at the hands of the backward Taliban. Taking over her husband’s radio address in November 2001, she reminded others that her husband’s war was a just one because after this war Afghan women would be liberated. So the similarities

between Afghanistan and a possible intervention in Nigeria in the near future are obvious enough to raise fears that perhaps the recent actions of Boko Haram were just yet another false flag ordered by Western military strategists to gain control of the oil-rich nation. We have recently been reminded about the false flags in Ukraine and Turkey, both allies of the United States. In Turkey, the government has been in deep trouble after a secret tape recording of its top officials was uploaded

onto YouTube, in which they are heard planning a terrorist attack on their own land in the hope of starting a war against Syria.

And there are plenty of signs that Boko Haram could well serve the same purpose

for internal and external powers. Their activities occur suspiciously close to elections, and often enough to lead some analysts to call them ‘guns for hire’. Boko Haram violence invariably spikes 12-18 months before the presidential elections. The next general election is in 2015.The Nigerian press has revealed that a number of leading Nigerian officials

(senators, governors, etc.) have been in direct communication with Boko Haram’s

members. The group almost acts as a franchise for violence. In return for favours and goods, they suggest, it engages in acts of terrorism. So far Boko Haram has been shown to have connections within Nigeria’s own political elite. Now if the group starts offering its services to powers outside Nigeria, it is quite possible that we may see full-scale civil war in this resource-rich country, leading eventually to a formalised division of Nigeria into the impoverished Muslim north and the rich Christian south. According to the White House, there are already ‘boots on the ground’ in the shape of top security experts who are supposedly there to help the Nigerian military find

and free the abducted girls. If the situation eventually spirals out of control in the northern states, the United States, Britain and France could also be tempted to send in their armed forces. After all, in the past decade every time these ‘boots’ have landed, they have landed suspiciously too close to an oil well or a mineral mine, and Nigeria has an abundance of both..

All the statements made by rational, educated Muslims ... were completely ignored by journalists covering the incident, who seemed bent on bashing Islam and Muslims, in effect helping to give far more airtime ... to the incoherent speech of a misguided, self-proclaimed radical Muslim than the majority of Muslims who condemned such actions.

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Ramadhan and the essence of worship

C o v e r

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Ramadhan and the essence of worship As the pervading philosophy of maximisation

extends to all aspects of our life, Alexander Khaleeli warns us of the risk of turning the spiritual experience of fasting during the month of Ramadhan as yet another task for us to tick off

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As many of us cast worried glances at the gradually lengthening daylight hours, discuss

strategies for maximising night-time food consumption, and fill our social media feeds with articles extolling the benefits of fasting, the omens are clear – the month of Ramadhan is coming. For some, this is indeed an ominous time. Unless you plan to go on an extended retreat in the furthest reaches of the southern hemisphere (and you had the forethought to book some time off from work), this may well be the longest, hottest month of Ramadhan you have ever experienced in this British Isles. So, for the majority of us, there is a real danger that instead of enjoying this month of fasting, we are going to focus all our efforts on just surviving it. It must be said that part of the reason for this is the modern capitalist consumer culture in which we live…because time is money (as indeed is everything else) and economic growth is king, there is a constant pressure to maximise our productivity, whether this is by accepting zero-hours contracts, burdening ourselves with more debt or raising the age of retirement. And this does not apply just to the world of work, but to our personal lives as well. There are apps and devices out there which promise to make us better, healthier and more efficient; we can read faster, organise our lives faster and even relax faster. Every drop of potential must be squeezed out. Arthur Miller’s warning looms large: ‘A man is not a piece of fruit!’ And in this world of relentless efficiency, we can sometimes treat the fasting of the month of Ramadhan as yet another task for us to tick off. Taught implicitly to view everything in worldly or monetary terms, we look at it as belonging in the same category as ‘Meeting at 2.30 pm’ or ‘Pick

up milk on way home’ – a chore we must balance with our other worldly chores. And as a chore, we will want to get it done with the least amount of effort necessary, grinding ourselves down to do only the bare minimum (basically being hungry for a very long time) and not enjoying it at all. Yes, fasting is supposed to be difficult – if it wasn’t a challenge, it wouldn’t be worth doing – but it is a difficulty we are supposed to relish, like the feeling you get after a good workout. That is why the Prophet(s) says: ‘Someone who fasts will experience two joys – the joy of iftar (breaking the fast) and the joy of meeting his Lord’. Classical scholars explain that this joy of iftar should spring from the sense that God has made you successful in your fast, rather than the knowledge that we can eat and drink again. In other words, when we break our fast we should feel a sense of achievement rather than one of mere relief.But at the opposite extreme is an attitude which also comes from being immersed in a culture which worships productivity, namely, we see the spiritual value in Ramadhan, but we unwittingly transpose the same mentality of efficiency into our acts of worship. This means that we focus on the quantity of our worship rather than its quality; we push ourselves to read just one more page of the Qur’an, just one more du’a (supplication), just one more salah (prayer). Eventually, we exhaust ourselves and numb our hearts to the simple pleasure of seeking nearness to God. Our worship, though abundant, becomes robotic and unfeeling. We forget that, in this most holy of months, even our sleep is transformed into worship; Imam Musa ibn Jafar al-Kadhem(a) says: ‘Take a nap [while fasting] for God feeds and quenches the one who is fasting in his sleep’. God did not tell us to fast so that we could be better automatons, but so that we could be better people –

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Alexander Khaleeli is a researcher and student in the Islamic Seminaries. He has a BA and MA in Islamic Studies.

‘Prescribed for you is fasting as it was prescribed for those who were before you, so that you may be wary’ (2:183)– so while we should certainly look to make the most of the month of Ramadhan, this doesn’t mean we should turn Ramadhan into mundane work. Done properly, Ramadhan is the perfect antidote to this obsession with productivity. Jamal ‘Abd al-Nasser, who was determined to modernise Egypt along secular lines, famously said that a modern, industrial country cannot afford to fast for a whole month every year because of the physical strain that fasting puts on the body. But that’s precisely the point. The Prophet(s) said: ‘For everything there is a zakat (Islamic tithe), and the zakat of the body is fasting’. When we pay zakat – or any kind of religious tithe – on our wealth, we do so in recognition that this wealth is not truly our own, but rather something that has been entrusted to us by God. This is something easy for us to recognise because wealth is something extraneous to our sense of self, something which can be gained and lost rapidly; it exists in tangible external forms whether as money or as the goods and services we purchase. On the other hand, our physical body is much more integral to our sense of self; it is taken for granted that our bodies are our own and always have been, and our bodies give a convincing illusion of actually being identical with our self or ego (a misconception which Ibn Sina’s ‘floating man’ thought experiment was intended to challenge). Therefore fasting – as a kind of zakat – has the rather radical effect of showing us that our bodies are neither identical with our selves, nor do they belong entirely to us. By denying our bodies their basic necessities and desires during daylight hours, we actually demonstrate that there

must be some faculty within us which has dominance over our physical bodies and, since it is the body that demands these things, this faculty cannot be a purely bodily or physical phenomenon but must actually transcend the body in order to command it. This is, of course, the intellect, which God says, in a tradition, is the dearest of His creatures and the basis on which He rewards and punishes. So our bodies, while obviously closely attached to our selves, are not actually identical with them (This also should remind us that we will one day die and leave these bodies and this life and move on to a new life after death). While we use these bodies for most of the year to seek our own worldly benefits, in the month of Ramadhan we must pay the zakat of our bodies by using them to fast for God. This does not mean we cannot work, play or otherwise enjoy life for this month, only that – whatever we may do – we will have the constant reminder that this body is only a temporary abode for our souls, and that therefore we should focus our efforts and energies not on squeezing out every ounce of ‘productivity’ from our bodies, but instead on preparing the bodies we will have in the next world.For those of us in the British Isles, I’d like to finish by sharing a tradition very relevant to fasting this year: ‘Whoever fasts for God on a day of extreme heat and is afflicted by thirst, God will appoint over him a thousand angels who will wipe his face and wish him glad tidings until he breaks his fast, and God will say:´How lovely is your scent and your spirit! O my angels! Bear witness that I have forgiven this one his sins!.´.

Unless you plan to go on an extended retreat in the furthest reaches of the southern hemisphere ...this [Ramadhan] may well be the longest, hottest month of Ramadhan you have ever experienced in this British Isles. So, … there is a real danger that instead of enjoying this month of fasting, we are going to focus all our efforts on just surviving it.

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F e a t u r e

‘Rajab is the month of God, Sha’ban is my month and Ramadhan is the month of my Ummah.’ – Prophet Muhammad(s)

Finally! That time of the year that we await with such eagerness has arrived. The preparations for fasting, the excitement of spotting the new moon that heralds its commencement and the welcoming of an atmosphere that is unique to Ramadhan – these are the things that occupy us as this month begins.We have made it through Rajab and Sha’ban and are blessed once more to arrive at the doorstep of the month of Ramadhan. Are we ready to journey through it and take what it has to offer? In the previous months, we started the process of change within ourselves, doing away with some negative habits and adopting positive traits. Now is the time to harvest the fruit of our efforts.

To Last a LifetimeThere is an abundance of both verses and traditions that emphasise the greatness of the month of Ramadhan and its status above all other months. ‘The month of Ramadhan is one in which the Qur’an was sent down as guidance to mankind, with manifest proofs of guidance and the Criterion’. (2:185)The most important aspect of the month of Ramadhan is that it includes Laylatul Qadr (the Night of Decree). Considered the climax of the Islamic year, this night is equal to a thousand months - in essence a lifetime. It is in the few hours of this night that believers can literally change their destiny and create an influence over their future in the coming year.

The Four R’s of RebirthThe month of Ramadhan is both a journey and a destination. Our travels through the days of this month determine where we will reach at its end. Eid al-Fitr is ideally supposed to be a celebration of the cleansing of the soul and the rebirth of a new identity that is more dedicated to seeking nearness to God. The following concepts may help to keep you focused on this as you begin your own personal quest.

1. RepairThe best solution to any problem for a Muslim is to turn to istighfar (repentance). The Prophet(s) has said, ‘Nothing is more favourable to God than a repentant believer.’The act of placing ourselves before God with comprehension of the burden of imperfection we carry that only He - the Most Perfect - can lift off from our shoulders, creates a deep connection with the Divine.It requires that we acknowledge every flaw, every act of disobedience and every sin committed. When we begin to get a better sense of how vast the gap between what we are and what we were created to be is, we establish the start of a true relationship with Him.It is only when our hearts are soft enough that seeking forgiveness becomes an act woven with desperation that we begin to realise there is absolutely no other entity that can absolve us except the entity that we have wronged. And for such sincere repentance there is only acceptance, as God says in the Qur’an, ‘Indeed I am All-Forgiving toward him who repents, becomes faithful and acts righteously, and then follows guidance’. (20:82)

2. ReviveA heart that has been humbled is more receptive to change and more determined to grow. The month of Ramadhan is the ideal time to water the heart and embed the positive changes you want into it.Of the many supplications recommended for recitation in this month, perhaps the most beautiful is that of Iftitah (Opening) that is recited every night in this

The Month of Ramadhan; A SEASON FOR THE SOUL

A Time to GrowThe holy month of Ramadhan is a time for resolution and revolution. Batool Haydar seeks to discover the best way to make this month a new beginning in every way

The act of placing ourselves before God with comprehension of the burden of imperfection we carry that only He - the Most Perfect - can lift off from our shoulders, creates a deep connection with

the Divine.

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month. Its themes vary from the serene to the serious and its verses are poetic prose telling the story of a Lover and his Beloved. The verbal imagery used evoke feelings of awe, admiration and love for a Creator who is perfect in His attributes of both Jalaal (Majesty) and Jamaal (Beauty). ‘All praise to God, in Whose awe the heavens and its dwellers quiver...’. Following this we then recite: ‘All praise to God, Who answers me whenever I call Him, covers up my shortcomings while I disobey Him...’The contrast between His awe and Love creates a deeper understanding of how much we need God and how He is always there for us.

3. RediscoverOne of the highest recommended acts for the month of Ramadhan is to recite the Qur’an. Sadly, this practice has become more cultural than spiritual. For many, this is the one and only time in the entire year that they will recite any verses of the Qur’an. Few try to read either the translation or exegesis of any of the chapters.Having put in such effort in the past months of Rajab and Sha’ban, this month of Ramadhan is a prime time to start rediscovering the Qur’an as we recite it.It is through the Qur’an that He speaks to us of all this Knowledge and Wisdom. An exploration of this treasure trove of infinite depth begun this month would be a spiritual adventure that would outlast our lifetime!

4. ResolveAs the Season of Worship comes to an end, we all usually nurture the hope that we have in some way progressed towards our aim of becoming closer to God. However, we often allow this hope to remain only a passive wish. With the passing of Eid, we become lax and feel that we need to wait for the following year to begin our efforts again.The best way to truly celebrate Eid is to be determined to continue the path of change and progress for the rest of the year. Every day passed without some effort on our part is an opportunity wasted and lost forever.Through the nights of Qadr, when the bond between our spirituality and Divine acceptance is at its peak, we should firmly embed the resolve to hold on to the path of progress for the rest of the year and seek the strength to be able to do so.

A New LifeThere are many life-changing events which are imposed on us that we have no control over. We may not have the power to change them but we have the power of faith and endurance to overcome them. But that doesn’t mean change comes only though them - we can change ourselves as well. The month of Ramadhan helps us to reclaim the power of faith, and it is a prime time that makes change easier and smoother. For these thirty days, we change habits that are deeply embedded in us and we do so literally overnight. Yet, by the end of the month, the new system is so much a part of us that we go back to our old ways with a sense of reluctance.The question to ask is: Do we have to go back to our old ways? If we feel reluctant towards adopting certain habits again, perhaps they were never meant to be part of our lifestyle. This is a good time to decide how much control we want to have over our way of living. These are the essential realisations that the month of Ramadhan brings with it: that we are stronger than we think and we all have the ability to change – drastically – with ease..

Batool Haydar is a wordsmith who has written manyarticles and blogs.

It is through the Qur’an that He speaks to us .... An exploration of this treasure trove of infinite depth begun this month would be a spiritual adventure that would

outlast our lifetime!

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F a i t h

We all think we know what is virtuous and what isn’t, but only God is the owner of absolute virtue - a thing which the soul longs for, and the

self tries to express, yet it often perverts virtue and turns it into vice, brought about by whims and wrong choices. But even these vices are part of the plan for our learning in this realm of existence! In this realm, because there are no absolutes, there are no absolute virtues and vices; whether an action is virtuous or not depends on whether it is appropriate to the situation and its outcome. Appropriateness means choosing the correct course of action by using discrimination and good sense, based on the fundamental values and principles given to us by our Creator. We should avoid labeling someone as a ‘bad person’. Islam does not accept the doctrine of ‘original sin’, so people are not born bad, however if the lower self (ego) has been allowed to get out of control, his or her character will be bad unless corrective measures are taken.When God gives us His laws and rules in the Holy Qur’an, we are often told not to ‘exceed the limits’, to maintain the ‘mizan’, or balance; here we are supposed to use our ‘aql (intelligence and knowledge) and furqan (discrimination) to decide on the best course of action, knowing that a wrong action can harm not only others, but more likely also ourselves. So people who see shari’ah as rigid and unchanging have not understood its true

meaning and application. For example, divorce is disliked by God, and would be a vice if someone divorced a wife or husband frequently and irresponsibly for a ‘new model’. However, if spouses cannot get on, or if there are serious failings on either side, it is permitted as the lesser of two evils. At the same time there is ample allowance for reconciliation. God is merciful to humankind when they make mistakes and gives them a chance to put things right.Generosity is regarded as one of the main virtues, but if it is inappropriately applied, it

can become a vice. A Quranic verse warns us not to stretch out our arm so far as to make ourselves destitute, nor to hold it too close to ourselves so that we become niggardly (17: 26 & 29). In the Gospel, Jesus is reported to have said, ‘If you have two coats, give one away’. He did not say

‘give them both away’. These principles of action seem to be obvious common sense, but most of us are not following them. Some people spend ridiculous amounts on weddings, getting into debt as a result, because they are not applying these principles. Spending to make others think well of you is not true generosity! Others refuse to give when they can afford it out of fear for their own provision. The Holy Qur’an reminds us that wealth is transient and Imam Ali added that we should not let our wealth own us.

Understandingvirtue and vice:

During the month of Ramadhan many of us will be aiming at self-improvement. Julia Khadija Lafene offers a few reflections on the nature of vice and virtue and how we could use this knowledge to improve ourselves

Islam does not accept the doctrine of ‘original sin’, so people are not born bad, however if … (ego) has been allowed to get out of control, his or her character will be bad unless

corrective measures are taken.

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A lesson for the holy month of Ramadhan

Julia Khadija Lafene has a degree in Modern History from Oxford University. Born in India, she lived and taught in Nigeria for 16 years and has worked as a lecturer in Language and Learning Support in the UK. Since embracing Islam she has studied Islamic psychology and self-knowledge.

Anger often originates from a sense of injustice, which is a good quality, but it is also one which can become perverted into excessive reaction. Recognising this state in oneself is the first

step towards controlling the lower self.

What action can we take to improve ourselves in the month of Ramadhan?

The month of Ramadhan will soon be with us, so let us ask ourselves:What are my own weaknesses and vices?Where do these originate?What action can I take to deal with these weaknesses?

For a start it is very useful to use a trusted friend as a mirror. We can ask our friends to

tell us frankly what they see as our weaknesses in return for doing the same for them. We can do this

constructively instead of critically and judgmentally. It is important for our self-knowledge to reflect on the origin of these weaknesses,which is often something that happened in childhood. This needs to be acknowledged and worked on. Action depends on the particular vice, but usually involves observing oneself and doing the opposite of what one usually might do in such a situation.An example might be a person who has a very hot temper, who gets angry easily and sometimes loses his temper altogether about things which seem trivial to others. Anger often originates from a sense of injustice, which is a good quality, but it is also one which can become perverted into excessive reaction. Recognising this state in oneself is the first step towards controlling the lower self. Again the Holy Qur’an warns us about excessive anger, and advises us to forgive others (3:134). This does not mean that we should not be angry about injustice, but it is the

way we express it that matters. We need to be very honest about the source of our anger: is it truly a reaction to injustice or is it connected with our own psyche?So how do we deal with such a weakness? Having recognised the source, we respond from our higher self, first by calling upon God for help and guidance, then taking time for reflection on how to react. Once we are aware of the virtues which are opposite to such vices we can begin to practice them. 70:19-28, and other verses, point out that our vices will lead to undesirable outcomes and awareness of them can cause us to turn towards our Lord.The month of Ramadhan gives us the ideal

opportunity to break the habitual patterns of the lower self: the time we usually spend eating and drinking can be used for reflection and purification of the self. The outer abstentions and rules of fasting are well-known, but these enable us to practice inner abstentions from our illusions about ourselves, which veil

us from witnessing our Lord. It is, for example, an illusion to think I am at all virtuous through my own doing for God is the source of all virtue. In the month of Ramadhan, especially, I need to recognise this with humility..

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H e a l t h

M E R S

H e a l t h E d i t o r L a l e h L o h r a s b i

The ability of viruses to mutate quickly puts human beings continually

at risk of contracting new illnesses. Laleh Lohrasbi examines a relatively new but powerful killer virus behind

the recent infectious outbreak in Saudi Arabia

The pilgrimage to Makkah has become an all year round activity, with large crowds of believers converging on the holy city every month – thus making the city a perfect

environment for spreading new diseases.

SARS, which originated from China, quickly spread to two-dozen countries, including Saudi Arabia, killing 800 people. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, is a viral respiratory illness caused by a coronavirus, called SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV). Since its 2003 outbreak, there has been no known cases of SARS reported anywhere in the world.

In September 2012, Saudi Arabia reported two cases of a mysterious SARS-like virus, which resulted in one death. This unknown virus was found to be similar to SARS, thus raising concerns ahead of the Hajj pilgrimage of a possible epidemic. Later in 2012 the virus was identified as a new coronavirus and the

disease was named the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).

In early 2014, the rate of infection in Saudi Arabia surged and an outbreak of associated illnesses in hospitals in Jeddah and Riyadh was reported. The total number of infections nearly doubled in April and continued to rise by a further 25 percent in May.

In May 2014, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported a total of 636 cases worldwide, which included 193 deaths, making the mortality rate 30%. In the same month, Saudi Arabia reported 32 new cases of MERS and 9 more deaths from the deadly virus, bringing the total deaths in the country to 126.

Although the main source of the virus is not known, it is thought that mammals play an important role in the transmission of the virus, especially bats and camels. MERS-CoV (the corona virus which causes MERS) has been identified in camels in Qatar, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and in bats in Saudi Arabia.

It is very likely that the virus infected humans by air or after the consumption of infected camel milk or meat. All cases have been linked to countries neighbouring the Arabian Peninsula including Bahrain, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates (UAE), the West Bank and Yemen. Cases reported in other countries are mostly travel-related.

Although the main source of the virus is not known, it is thought that mammals play an important role in the transmission of the virus,

especially bats and camels.

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1- Symptoms MERS is a pneumonia-like disease, and the symptoms are very close to SARS. The main difference between SARS and MERS is the renal failure associated with the MERS-CoV. The most common symptoms of MERS include a 100.4° F – 38° C fever, cough, breathing difficulties, chills, chest pain, body aches, sore throat, malaise (a general feeling of being unwell), headache, diarrhoea, nausea/vomiting, runny nose, renal (kidney) failure and pneumonia. Most sufferers develop severely acute symptoms, while a few show mild symptoms and a minority have no symptoms at all. Those in contact with MERS patients arriving from Hajj were examined for MERSCoV, and only after examination they showed symptoms of this illness.

2- Spreading Close contact with an infected person should be avoided as MERS is an air-borne influenza, or flu- like disease; the spreading process happens through small droplets of infected water and is disseminated through sneezing or coughing. Wearing masks or keeping a distance of at least three feet should be considered when near an infected patient. Touching a surface that has been touched by an infected patient can also transmit the disease, so washing hands regularly is essential for both the infected person and the healthy person. Health care providers and family members should take these warning seriously.

Other high risk groups are patients with chronic diseases, such as diabetes, chronic lung disease and heart conditions, the elderly, organ transplant recipients who are on immuno -suppressive medications, and cancer patients undergoing treatment.

Pneumonia - the most common complication - is the number one cause of death in affected patients. The respiratory problems can become so severe that the patient needs a mechanical respirator. Organ failures, like kidney failure and septic shock, occur in a significant number of patients, but people with chronic diseases like diabetes are more vulnerable to complications.

3- Prevention There are two peak periods for visits to the holy sites in Saudi Arabia - one towards the end of Ramadhan, and the other during hajj. Authorities have requested pilgrims to wear masks as a precaution against the MERS virus, while elderly and patients with chronic diseases are advised to postpone their pilgrimage. Pilgrims have also been asked to be extra careful with hygiene, to use paper tissues when sneezing or coughing, and to make sure that they are up-to-date with all their vaccinations.

Hands should be washed with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Touching the eyes, nose, and mouth

with unwashed hands should be avoided, as they are common ways for contracting a virus. Regular disinfecting of surfaces like door-knobs and tables with an antibacterial cleanser is also a good precaution. Undercooked meats (especially camel’s meat), or unsafe water can be avenues for transmitting the disease and should be avoided. Raw fruits and vegetables should be peeled or boiled.

4- TreatmentAccording to WHO, there is no specific treatment for MERS, but supportive medical care can be provided by doctors to help relieve symptoms. If any case of pneumonia-like symptoms in travellers to Saudi Arabia or neighbouring regions is observed, it is better to directly refer them to a hospital where diagnostic tools and supportive cares, such as mechanical respirators are more readily available.

Supportive care does not improve or treat the illness, but may help in controlling complications and side effects, as well as providing comfort for the patient. Fever should be controlled by effective anti-fever drugs like Ibuprofen. Headache and body pains can be decreased by painkillers. The most important thing to do is to check and sustain the functions of vital organs, such as the liver, kidneys and heart. It should be noted that antibiotics are completely useless in the case of MERS, as well as any other viral disease.

5- VaccineIn September 2013, a team of scientists from the Autonomous University of Madrid developed a strain of the MERS-CoV that could be used to develop a vaccine against the deadly pathogen. A couple of other research groups, like the Vaccine Research Group at the Mayo Clinic, or Hemispherx Biopharma, a company developing treatments for viral infections, and Novartis Vaccines, also worked on developing a vaccine for MERS but despite the early announcements, to date no known vaccine has been developed.

‘Finding an attackable target on the surface of a virus is relatively easy these days, and there’s nothing about the MERS virus that is likely to make it difficult to attack. But testing the safety and effectiveness of a vaccine could easily take six years and will likely cost around half a billion dollars’, says Philip Dormitzer, Global Head of Virology for Novartis Vaccines.

As viruses can mutate quickly, the financial risks could be much more exorbitant than currently predicted..Dr. Laleh Lohrasbi is a pharmacologist. She has worked as an editor for the medical section of Hamshahri, a daily newspaper in Tehran.

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